By Natalia Zinets
Kyiv, April 29 – Ukraine on Friday acknowledged it had suffered heavy casualties in the Russian attack in the east, but said Russia’s were worse as US President Joe Biden urged Congress to extend up to 33 Send billions of dollars to help Kyiv resist attack.
The body of a journalist from US-backed Radio Liberty was found in the rubble of a building in the Ukrainian capital after a Russian missile attack during a visit by the UN Secretary-General.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed Biden’s offer of aid, which is nearly 10 times the amount Washington has sent since the war began on Feb. 24.
After a failed attack on Kyiv in northern Ukraine last month, Russia is now attempting to fully seize two eastern provinces known as Donbass.
Ukraine has admitted it has lost control of some towns and cities in the region since the attack began last week, but says Moscow’s advances have come at a massive price on a Russian force already wounded by their earlier defeat was worn down near the capital.
“We have heavy casualties, but the Russians’ are much bigger… They have colossal casualties,” said presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych.
By pledging tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, Biden has dramatically increased America’s involvement in the conflict.
The United States and its allies are now sending in heavy weapons, including artillery, which Washington says are designed not only to repel Russia’s attack but also to weaken its armed forces so it can no longer threaten its neighbors.
Zelenskyy tweeted: “Thank you @POTUS and the American people for your leadership in supporting Ukraine in our fight against Russian aggression. We stand for common values: democracy and freedom. We appreciate the help. We need them now more than ever.”
Continue reading the story
Russia has said the arrival of Western arms in Ukraine means it is now waging a “proxy war” against NATO. President Vladimir Putin threatened unspecified retaliation this week when his foreign minister warned of the threat of nuclear war.
DEAD JOURNALIST
Prague-based radio station Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported that the body of producer Vira Hyrych was found Friday morning after Thursday’s rocket attack destroyed the top two floors of an apartment building. He added that Hyrych has worked for Radio Liberty since 2018.
“He was about to go to bed when a Russian ballistic missile hit his apartment in central Kyiv. Russia’s barbarism is incomprehensible,” said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Oleg Nikolenko. “We call on the media to condemn the murder of Vira and all other innocent Ukrainians.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed the production facilities of a missile factory in Kyiv using long-range, high-precision missiles.
RFE/RL, which is funded by the United States and has reported on the former Soviet Union since the Cold War, is one of the main Russian-language news sources, escaping the Kremlin’s control since Moscow shut down all media after their invasion.
“Kyiv is still a dangerous place and of course Kyiv is still the target of the Russians. The Ukrainian capital is the target and they want to occupy it,” said Mayor Vitali Klitschko, who previously oversaw the clean-up of the rubble-strewn street that the body was found.
The rockets hit the capital during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday. The Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov spoke of an “attack on the security of the Secretary General and world security”.
Zelenskyy’s office said Russia was hitting the entire front line in the eastern Donetsk region with rockets, artillery, mortar shells and planes. Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia was shelling positions along the line of contact to prevent Ukrainian forces from regrouping.
Britain said fighting had been particularly fierce around the cities of Lisichansk and Severodonetsk, the part of Donbass Russia is still trying to conquer with an attempted push south of Russian-held Izium towards Sloviansk.
The bloodiest fighting and worst humanitarian disaster of the war occurred in Mariupol, an eastern port turned into a wasteland by two months of Russian bombardment and siege.
Ukraine claims there are 100,000 civilians in the city, most of whom are occupied by Russia. Hundreds of civilians have taken refuge with the last defenders in underground bunkers under a huge steel factory.
Zelenskyy’s office said an operation to remove the civilians from the facility was planned on Friday, but gave no details.
In the parts of Mariupol now in the hands of Russian troops, emergency services collected bodies from the streets. Amidst the ruins, residents told of the terror they had survived.
“We were hungry, the child cried when the Grad grenades (multiple rocket launchers) fell near the house. We thought: This is it, this is the end. It cannot be described,” said Viktoria Nikolayeva, 54, who survived the attack He told Reuters the fight with his family in a basement and cried.
“It was a massacre,” said Vitaliy Kudasov, 71. “It was the scariest when the shells were coming our way. The grenades, the bullets and all that, you couldn’t survive. And yet we did it.”
(Additional coverage by Reuters journalists; writing by Peter Graff; editing in Spanish by Ricardo Figueroa)